Babysitter
by KingoftheU
Summary: Cassie Lang babysits Morgan Potts-Stark, shenanigans ensue. Spoilers through Endgame.


The process by which Cassie Lang had ended up babysitting Morgan Potts-Stark had been a long one. Morgan had really, really wanted to see the Golden Gate Bridge, and so she couldn't be left in New York with Happy, and Pepper Potts was really a big old softie at times.

Plan A had been Bruce Banner, who was working with CalTech on something. But then this bit of alien goo had landed in San Jose, and the Hulk was needed there. No problem. Morgan had already seen the Bridge, a sorcerer could just send her back home. But no, the head of the local branch was a total asshole who scoffed at "mundane uses" for magic. Plan C was the day care at the conference center. Unfortunately the ruler of Latveria was a paranoid SOB who insisted on armed guards in every room of the building, including the daycare. So that was out of the question.

Plan D was her dad. A fact that he had only learned when a very frazzled looking Pepper Potts had shown up at his door. She filled him in while Morgan complained about how she wanted to see Bruce.

Unfortunately he was going on a date. A "this is obviously a dry-run for when I propose to Hope" date, at a fancy restaurant downtown. He'd hemmed and hawed a bit, but then Cassie had volunteered herself.

It had taken some cajoling and some promises to call if anything got wrong, but she had managed to wrangle the babysitting job. She hadn't even jacked up the price.

Much.

* * *

The first thing Cassie Lang learned about Morgan Potts-Stark was that she had opinions.

The best superhero was Spiderman because he was "cool". And brought her stuff from Queens, including club sandwiches. (Club sandwiches, Cassie was learning, were the currency of Morganville USA). Her favorite animal was a frog. Tony Stark had never had much time for sports, but Pepper Potts was a true daughter of Indianapolis, and so Morgan thought the Indiana Pacers the height of human achievement.

When quizzed about Ants she deemed them "acceptable". When asked about Antman Morgan replied that he was "kinda cool" because "ants are kinda like spiders", which had a certain irrefutable logic to it.

She also defended the Hulk like no one Cassie had seen before. When she mentioned Bruce Banner she reminded Cassie, in the tone universial to know-it-all five year olds, that it had been Bruce who had brought everyone back from the snap. Which was the kind of purely logical, yet emotionally manipulative, thing that Cassie would expect from a Stark.

* * *

Morgan Potts-Stark was wicked smart when it came to Biology.

Morgan was playing ponies with some of the fire ants, while Cassie did her AP homework. Stuck on a problem she started muttering about Okazaki Fragments, only for Morgan to suddenly run over excitedly.

Cassie then spent five minutes listening to a lecture on DNA splicing that was far more informative than anything she had heard in school. And probably more advanced by the sound of it since she hadn't heard anything about Parrot-Snakes in class. It was cute, and had the benefit of sound effects provided by a five year old.

She'd gone out on a limb and asked some physics questions to see if she could get any help on that front. Morgan had said "protons" was a fun word and then asked if they could watch some cartoons.

* * *

Morgan Potts-Stark has seen the world.

This was perhaps, not all that surprising. For all that Tony Stark had retreated from the world after the Snap he hadn't wanted his daughter raised in a castle, and her mother was still a major CEO. So she had been around the block.

Wakanda? Had a talking doll given to her by the Princess. France? Selfie with the Mona Lisa. Sokovia, Vienna, Seoul. The list went on and on. She had some opinions about the places to be sure (Spiderman had liked London, ergo London was cool), but overall seemed pretty content with it.

She hadn't been to Space yet, but she had promises from at least five different groups that she could come when her mom let her.

* * *

Morgan Potts-Stark was completely, utterly, convinced that her dad was coming back.

It wasn't unreasonable, Cassie supposed, Morgan had seen half of the universe return to life just last year. People who had just been stories had come back to reality. And Tony Stark's stubborn confidence in himself had rubbed off on Morgan. Daddy couldn't fail, because Daddy was Daddy. No matter what his hologram said to her.

And if Daddy couldn't do it himself? Morgan would help.

In time Cassie might be able to impart some helpful "so your dad died when you were really young" advice. But Morgan was still so young, younger then she had been, and was not witnessing the world collapse around her. And besides, any sage words of wisdom would be undermined by the fact that Cassie's dad had come back.

So Cassie let sleeping dogs lie.

* * *

Morgan Potts-Stark wanted to get into just about everything.

Apparently Tony Stark's idea of family bonding was lock-picking and juice pops, and Morgan had a natural curiosity. She poked around the fridge and rummaged through the garage, with Cassie keeping an eye on her of course. She didn't actually do all that much with the stuff she found, but she seemed to be remembering it.

Cassie resolved to keep that in mind.

It didn't take long for her to cover the ground floor, and Cassie had forbidden her from going upstairs. That lasted about as long as it took Cassie to use the restroom.

As she exited the bathroom, she heard the patering of small feet. She sighed. Well, no harm done, so long as she didn't look in…

"What's this?" Yelled Morgan.

* * *

Cassie Lang had a secret! And Morgan had found it! Yay!

Morgan giggled. The suit Cassie had in her closet was kinda ugly. It was all black and red and splotchy. Not like Mommy and Daddy's suits. Nothing Orange, She liked Orange. Maybe if she found an Orange crayon she could...Cassie snatched the suit out of Morgan's hands. Which wasn't nice.

"Whats that?" She asked.

"A costume for a play." Cassie said.

"It looks like a superhero suit!" Morgan declared. She liked superheros. Daddy was one and Spiderman was one. Superheros were cool.

"Well...uh…"

"Are you a superhero?" Asked Morgan. Having a friend who was a superhero would be cool. And fun. Fun Cool!

"Look I…"

"Do you fight crime with your Daddy? I want to fight crime with my Daddy?"

"NO! My dad can't know. He'd freak. He still thinks of me as a helpless kid and god if he knew I don't know what he'd due, and it would ruin everything with Hope and Hank and Janet because I'd have to explain the accident. And you're the only one who knows except Luis and I...I. Please don't tell anyone! It's a secret!"

"A secret?" Secrets were cool!

"Like a birthday present. You don't tell anyone what a birthday present is right?"

"Of course! I won't tell anyone about your birthday suit!" Morgan skipped out of the rooms.

"That's not what…" Cassie threw up her hands.

She hadn't learned how good Morgan Potts-Stark was at keeping secrets. But she was about to find out.


End file.
